The $164,000 Question

A local radio station and a supermarket tabloid have offered to pay big bucks to actor Robert Blake if he’ll take a lie detector test and answer questions about the May 4 execution-style slaying of his wife, Bonny Lee Bakley.

John Kobylt and Ken Chiampou of KFI-AM (640) dangled a check for $64,000 on Tuesday’s drive-time “John and Ken Show” and gave Blake 30 days to take them up on the offer.

“If he’s absolutely innocent and the story checks out, why not come on our show and take the $64,000?” Kobylt said. “It’s gonna be the best paycheck he gets all year. His house needs a paint job.”

Alas, it’s not going to happen, says Blake’s lawyer, Harland Braun. “It’s a police investigation. The idea of injecting the tabloids and a radio station into this is bizarre,” he said.

“It’s a slow day in the Blake case,” Braun added, “so they try to make these offers and then use the lawyer to create publicity.” He has turned down repeated requests to talk about it on TV and the radio. “My job is to represent Robert Blake, not to do commercials for KFI,” he said.

“What a blow,” Kobylt mourned.

Meanwhile, the Star has offered Blake $100,000 to play truth or dare with their polygraph examiner. Declined, Braun said.

Odd Couple?

We hear that Dennis Rodman might be looking to open a restaurant in Costa Mesa. A foodie source tells us that the former NBA star recently put out feelers to Aubergine chef supreme Tim Goodell, who told us he’ll be meeting with Rodman. Could the pierced one be looking for a little respectability?

We do know that of late the locals behind the Orange Curtain haven’t exactly been friendly toward Rodman and his business. Last week, the city attorney in Newport Beach sued to end live entertainment and dancing at Josh Slocum’s, the seafood restaurant partly owned by Rodman. And party-pooping Orange County prosecutors filed misdemeanor charges against the human pincushion, accusing him of disturbing the peace during a recent 40th birthday bash at his beach house.

Fashion Police

U.S. Customs officials at Los Angeles International Airport are not known for their fashion sense. So we were not surprised to learn that the Feds were shocked, absolutely shocked, by the incoming collection by cutting-edge designer Vivienne Westwood’s Berlin fashion students. The Feds, who wear severe blue-black uniforms themselves, decided that 120 items of clothing were far too wild to be worn as the street clothes they had been declared. So they seized them.

Customs held the clothes for four days until the Goethe-Institut in L.A. could come up with a better reason for the hair cape, chain-mail chemises and other 18th century-inspired styles to enter the country. “Some of the designs consisted of nothing but crisscrossed straps,” the Goethe-Institut’s Ute Kirchhelle said. “So we declared them as theater costumes, and it was no longer a problem.”

The clothing will be worn by Leeza Gibbons of “Extra!,” Barbara Eden of “I Dream of Jeannie,”

Bill Brochtrup of “NYPD Blue,” Peter Paige of “Queer As Folk” and others at a June 14 fashion show at UCLA for the Actors’ Fund, a charity for needy entertainers.

U.S. Customs spokesman Greg Doss said he could “neither confirm nor deny” the incident. But, he added, it’s “entirely possible.”

Fact and Fiction

Jeffrey Archer--lord, millionaire, bestselling suspense author and former London mayoral candidate--can add a new title to his resume: defendant.

Archer, 61, is currently on trial in Britain for perjury and perverting the course of justice. The case dates back to 1987 when Archer sued the Daily Star over a story that said he had had sex with a prostitute. Archer, the deputy chairman of the Conservative party at the time, won the libel suit and was awarded a record $700,000 in damages.

But during last year’s mayoral race, a friend of Archer’s said the author had paid him to give false testimony. The disclosure led to a new trial in the criminal courts, where Archer is charged with seven counts of blurring the line between fact and fiction. Prosecutors allege that Archer recruited a friend to provide a false alibi and that he forged his diary during the libel case. If convicted, he could face seven years behind bars. How’s that for a plot twist?

Sightings

Anthony Edwards, casting his ballot--stat--at a polling place in Silver Lake. “You look familiar,” a poll worker said. “Did you vote in the primary?” . . . Tom Arnold enjoying a Bay of Pigs banana split at Asia de Cuba. . . . Also spied there were Tommy Chong, celebrating his 63rd birthday, Chyna, tackling the foie gras, and Marilyn Manson, diving into a calamari salad. . . . Kobe Bryant, checking out the Gucci goods at Neiman-Marcus. . . . Meg Ryan and Dennis Quaid, hanging out separately at the Bel Air Hotel. . . Sandra Bullock, dancing salsa at the Inn at Morro Bay near San Luis Obispo.

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Times staff writers Louise Roug and Gina Piccalo contributed to this report.